In 1989, a survey of French cultural taste revealed that Serge Gainsbourg was both one of the most popular singers and yet a near outcast in his native country. When he died, two years later, President Mitterrand called him “our Baudelaire, our Apollinaire”, claiming he had “elevated chanson to the level of art”. But he might just as well have acknowledged Gainsbourg as the first artist to top the British charts with a single in a foreign language. With the hindsight of almost thirty years, one thing is, in any case, certain: sampled by Beck, De La Soul, Massive Attack and Fatboy Slim, remixed by Howie B. and David Holmes, translated by Mick Harvey and covered by Iggy Pop, Donna Summer, Portishead, Madeleine Peyroux, the Pet Shop Boys and Franz Ferdinand, “the man with the cabbage head” remains the Francophone songwriter whose contribution to the international appeal of French popular music has been the most significant in the post-war era. To celebrate the 90th anniversary of his birth, the IReMus’s CRMP (Centre de Recherche sur les Musiques Populaires) is organising the first international conference on this protean creator standing at the crossroads of pop music and chanson. We welcome papers on topics including (but not restricted to):

Gainsbourg’s artistic output;

his musical influences and inspirations;

his relationship to the world of high culture;

his connections with other art forms (cinema, literature, etc.);

his career strategy and handling of his public image;

his position in the social field;

issues of gender.

The languages of the conference are French and English.* Proposals (of no more than 300 words) and short biographical notes (maximum 75 words) should be sent to gainsbourg2018(at)gmail.com by 17 December 2017. They will be peer-reviewed and decisions communicated on 5 February 2018.

For further information, please contact olivier.julien(at)paris-sorbonne.fr.